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A nation’s desperate war against oil theft

May 4, 2013 : Mike Odiegwu

Crude oil theft | credits: File copy

Mike Odiegwu writes that with the level of pipeline vandalism and oil theft in the Niger Delta, it will take more than military operations to contain the menace

Apart from the confusion of dealing with terrorism and other widespread violent crimes, Nigeria is waging an endless war against economic sabotage.

The Federal Government is disturbed that despite granting amnesty to Niger Delta militants with its accompanying empowerment and cash gratification, the theft of petroleum products, the mainstay of the country’s economy, has assumed an alarming rate in the region.

Before the late President Umaru Yar’Adua dangled the amnesty carrots before the Niger Delta, aggrieved youths claiming to be agitating for resource control and development, had sustained coordinated attacks against oil installations. These acts crippled the nation’s oil production.

With the amnesty, the government had hoped to eliminate all hindrances to oil production by destroying all militant camps and moving the creek warriors away from pipelines and other oil facilities. Therefore, the ultimate aim was to remove all human threats against oil production, including the kidnap of indigenous and foreign oil workers, in order to guarantee the survival of the economy.

But that objective appears to have hit the rocks. Youths protesting their non-inclusion in the amnesty programme have relocated to the creeks to wreak havoc on pipelines. Men and women living in impoverished coastal communities in the region are puncturing pipelines and oil wells on a daily basis to scoop crude oil.

They have vowed not to stop, claiming that it is their national cake since the government has refused to provide their basic needs. The natives have also learnt the science and art of erecting illegal refineries to cook their stolen crude and sell to willing buyers.

Observers have also discovered the international dimension to oil theft, including the involvement of wealthy businessmen, politicians and military personnel in illegal oil deals. So, the government, despite spending multi-billion naira on the amnesty programme, is still battling to sustain oil production.

The Federal Government in 2012 converted the Joint Task Force, which gave militants in the region a bloody nose, to an anti-oil theft outfit. From a codename of Operation Restore Hope, JTF has become Operation Pulo (Oil) Shield.

Its composition has also been expanded to include the National Intelligence Agency, Nigerian Prisons Service, Nigerian Customs Service, Nigerian Immigration Service, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency.

The former Media Coordinator of the security outfit, Lt.-Col. Timothy Antigha, had said the restructuring would further strengthen the effort of the outfit in tackling headlong illegal oil bunkering, pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft in the region.

“Consequently, to confront and eliminate this problem, which is responsible for the loss of Federal Government’s revenue to the tune of $15.8bn, the Defence Headquarters has directed the JTF to now focus on pipeline vandalism and associated economic crimes.

“In this new phase, the mission of the JTF will include, but not limited to, elimination of pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, illegal oil refining and illegal oil bunkering.”

Despite the efforts of the JTF in tackling the menace, activities of oil thieves are growing in leaps and bounds, forcing President Goodluck Jonathan to direct the Nigerian Navy to assume a frontline role in the war against oil theft.

While decorating Vice Admiral Dele Ezeoba as the Chief of Naval Staff in October 2012, Jonathan told him to quickly settle down and tackle the issue of security on the nation’s territorial waters, with a view to ending the scourge of crude oil theft in the county.

In his efforts to actualise the demands of the President, Ezeoba assembled naval commanders in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State in January for a retreat to fashion out ways of confronting oil thieves.

The service chief and other senior naval officers in the retreat decided to beef up the fleet of the Central Naval Command, which has Bayelsa, a state notorious for pipeline vandalism and kidnapping of oil workers, as its area of responsibility.

Based on the decisions reached at the retreat, the Naval Headquarters in March sent three special patrol boats it acquired from France to its Central Naval Command in Brass Island.

The three boats, P175, P176 and P177, berthed at the Naval Forward Operational Base and were received on behalf of the Flag Officer Commanding, CNC, Rear Admiral Johnson Olutoyin by the Fleet Commander, CNC, Commodore Monsuru Boladale and the command’s Operations Officer, Commodore Emmanuel Enemor.

Boladale said a patrol programme had been drawn out for the boats to hit the waterways and ensure that they rid the command’s waters of illegal activities.

But shortly after the boats berthed in Bayelsa, the Shell Petroleum Development Company raised the alarm over rising incident of crude oil theft from its facilities in the Niger Delta and said it could be forced by the development to shut down operations.

The Managing Director of SPDC, Mr. Mutiu Sunmonu, said the company was losing an average of 60,000 barrels of crude oil per day, describing the figure as the highest volume of crude stolen so far within the last three years.

The alarm was followed by the Nigerian Agip Oil Company, which complained that its pipelines in the region, especially the ones in Bayelsa State, were under constant attacks by oil thieves.

Though the JTF replied the two major oil companies, Ezeoba took up the responsibility to tour the creeks in the region in order to get personal assessment of the development.

The naval chief, who held meetings with representatives of the oil companies, decried the nonchalant attitude of foreign oil establishments toward the war against oil theft.

He observed that instead of being proactive in the war against vandalism, security agencies were reacting to the situation owing to lack of commitment of oil companies.

He said the Navy had achieved 80 per cent surveillance of pipelines in the region using its maritime patrol aircraft, helicopters and patrol boats. He, however, acknowledged that the available naval capacity was not enough as some pipelines were laid in inaccessible areas in the sea.

Ezeoba also traced the rising spate of pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft to lack of diligent prosecution of arrested suspects by the relevant agencies.

The agencies vested with the power of prosecuting oil theft offenders are the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the police.

“The law enforcement agencies that have the responsibility for prosecution should ensure that those culprits who have been caught and charged to court are prosecuted and jailed,” he said.

While warning naval personnel against aiding and abetting oil theft, he said he had established a system to monitor the activities of officers and ratings to determine their involvement in oil theft.

But observers believe Ezeoba and the JTF need to work harder to stop a group, Community Oil Refinery Operators, whose members have vowed to continue with crude oil theft. The members, in a statement signed by their spokesman, White Tamana, asked the Federal Government to grant them amnesty.

The group said only an amnesty from the government with the accompanying financial gratification and empowerment would stop its members from breaking pipelines and setting up illegal refineries.

The group said, “Local refinery operators are the main agitators in the Niger Delta. The struggle has two perspectives, the militants and the oil refinery operators.

“The government has only succeeded in identifying with the militants, but not knowing that we are stronger than the militants. The government thought we were militants but we are different from militants; that is why amnesty offer to militants has not stopped local refinery operations.

“Our operation gives us a sense of belonging. This is the only way we benefit from our national cake. We don’t steal oil. The oil in the region is our property. It is the Federal Government that is stealing from us with their animalistic laws of onshore and offshore dichotomy.

“We have decided to crumble the Nigerian economy to stop them from exploiting us, if amnesty is not given to us.

“We are not happy that our people die of hunger and epidemic due to oil exploration and exploitation, while others enjoy our oil money freely without looking back.

“We must take what belongs to us by force and any attempt to stop our operation by force will lead to another militancy in the region which will be worse than what we are seeing today.”

Following the threat and continuous attacks on oil installations in the country, pundits are of the opinion that it will take more than military tactics to end the menace.

Government should have a better offer and arrangment for these people because it is their property and I believed they deserve better tratement and good carring

Gloria Akherie

I think if they are also involve in the oil processing legally it will go a long way to stop these Vandalization taken place.

medallion

I think it high time we began to look at other sector of the economy and give the same attention like oil. Shutting down operations for like 3 months will not kill us as a nation. Oil breeds corruption,unrest,inequalities,crimes and inability to think.
Until we look inwards some charlatants will continue to hold us hostage and make us believe that we can not survive without the oil.

sharron

Utter nonsense, Nigeria’s problem is corruption in the 3 arms of government, Boko Haram,PDP, when all these are out of the way pipe line vandals would disappear along side until that time nothing would ever change .

Adepitan Adebajo

The south-south people of this country are really suffering and shouldn’t be. They are the brain-box behind Nigeria economy and existence,as the oil spillage impound negatively on their well-being cannot afford them the opportunity to farm on their land,no portable drinking water. To me I belief it should be totally prohibited by the South-South inhabitants,even it going to cost them their lives as it’s a slap on them. The Federal Govt must be considerate enough by heeding to yearnings of the people of the South-South region as they were unable to cultivate on their farmlands and live in abject poverty.

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